To meet new regulations, Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is being added into the PayPal login.
This means that when you login or pay with PayPal, you may be asked for a one-time code that we send via SMS to the phone number you have registered in your profile.
To keep using your PayPal account without interruption, please check that the phone number in your profile is correct.
I received it too Not a scam. Just log into Paypal and update your details
I just logged in to my PayPal account and found that my phone number did need confirming. Two factor authentication is a great security feature and you really should activate it.
It is a scam in the sense that SCA is a thinly disguised effort to increase mobile 'phone sales to the thousands of folk who don't possess one. We are now ruled by Corporate Interests.
Canary, if you don't have a mobile phone you can use an authenticator app on your tablet or desktop pc. My guess is that if you are using PayPal you have a computer or tablet connected to the internet.